Wimbledon: ‘Speedy recovery, please play US Open’- Kyrgios retires mid-match due to injury, Twitter devastated

As it turns out, it just wasn’t meant to be for Nick Kyrgios as his return to the Tour was cut short by an injury during his third-round Wimbledon match against Felix Auger-Aliassime. It was later disclosed that he suffered an abdominal injury during the game and that his tournament came to an end.

Australia’s tennis star Kyrgios looked in fine form initially, breaking his opponent’s serve thrice to sweep the first set 6-2. However, at 5-2, he needed to take a medical timeout to attend to his stomach muscle.

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He carried on in the third set but the discomfort he was feeling was clearly visible as his performance was hampered severely in the second set. His usually lethal serves turned out to be lukewarm as Auger-Aliassime bagged the second set 6-1 to level the score.

Soon after, Kyrios walked up to the Canadia, shook his hands, and called it quits, much to the disappointment of the crowd at Court One.

After the match, Kyrgios said: “I’ve not played at this level for a long time and when you’re playing someone as good as Felix I need to have my biggest weapon which is my serve, but I felt something in my ab,” the 26-year-old Kyrgios said on court.

However, he did sound positive towards the end as he stated:

“Playing out here and having this kind of support has made me have a second wind. I reckon I’m going to come back and play for a bit longer,” said Kyrgios, whose dedication to the sport has often been questioned.

“I did all I could to prepare to get here. I beat a heck of a player first round and I played a great second round.

“I tried to play as long as I could and I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you more today but you’ll see a lot of him in the future. And he’s better looking too, so it’s all good.”

Kyrgios earned a hard-fought five-set victory against Ugo Humbert in the first game before storming past Gianluca Mager in straight sets in the second round.

Auger-Aliassime’s rather hollow victory means he joins compatriot Denis Shapovalov in the last 16 — the first time in the professional era that two Canadian men have lasted that long. Shapovalov beat another Wimbledon favorite, home hero Andy Murray, on Friday.

Here’s how the world of Twitter reacted to Kyrgios’ retirement and also wished him a speedy recovery: